A University of Arkansas System board of trustees committee has recommended raising tuition and fees at all but one of the system's universities and colleges.
The full board will vote on the increases today after meetings of the remaining committees, including the committee that will consider proposed budgets for each of the system's colleges and universities.
That committee did not get a chance to consider the budgets Wednesday because of a two-hour executive session.
Trustees did not take action after the session, and Chairman John Goodson said he did not know whether another would be held today. Executive sessions typically occur at the end of the trustees' two-day meetings and often result in actions related to promotions and salary.
Of the budgets that will be presented today, only one includes a deficit.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock plans to run a $6.9 million deficit next year, which will be covered using reserve funds. At the same time, UALR, which is thousands of students smaller than it was in 2010, plans to increase fees but not tuition, setting it apart from most other schools -- including ones that are growing.
The school had 10,525 students in the fall, down from more than 13,000 several years ago.
"We're pretty keen to stick to our strategy of providing affordable, quality education," especially to people in central Arkansas, Chancellor Andrew Rogerson said in an interview after the meeting.
The Academic and Student Affairs Committee -- composed of Chairman Morril Harriman and members Stephen Broughton, Ed Fryar, Sheffield Nelson and Mark Waldrip -- approved all tuition and fee proposals without discussion.
Before the vote, UA System President Donald Bobbitt explained the tuition and fee proposals, all of which he recommended to trustees.
No price increase for the universities would top 3%, which is what Bobbitt said was standard across the country.
Prices would rise more at the community colleges, with a high of 6.7% for in-district students at the University of Arkansas Community College at Rich Mountain.
The college plans to increase its infrastructure fee by $6 per credit hour to pay for its transition into the university system's enterprise resource planning project, which will merge and make uniform the system's financial and human resources operations.
The University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville does not intend to raise tuition or fees next year, making it the only college or university that is not proposing a price increase.
Proposed tuition and fee increases are less than 1% each at the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College, which has been losing students and remains the most expensive of the system's two-year colleges. It is not supported by a local tax, unlike other colleges.
Community college costs would range from $2,980 per academic year (at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas) to $5,670 per academic year (at Pulaski Tech).
The vote took place at the UALR Fine Arts Building's Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, where trustees sat onstage and people who addressed them sat below, at a table on the audience-side floor. The meeting will be the board's last until September, when trustees will meet at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
If trustees give final approval to the tuition and fee rates today, then the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith will remain the least expensive among the five traditional universities, at $7,338.50, while raising its tuition and fees the most, by 2.96%.
UALR would remain the most expensive of the universities, when factoring in only tuition and fees. It would be $9,528.60 for undergraduate students taking 30 credit hours during the fall and spring semesters.
But the school would no longer be the most expensive public university in Arkansas. An incoming freshman at Arkansas Tech University taking 30 credit hours will have to pay $9,592.50 during the academic year.
UALR plans to raise its facilities, general, health services and athletic fees by a total of $3.50. It plans to adjust its technology fees, with a 75-cent increase for four of the university's five colleges and a 50-cent decrease for the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences.
The system estimates the fee increase to be about $90 for undergraduates taking 30 credit hours in the fall and spring semesters.
UALR will propose its budget today with a $6.9 million deficit. That's after expecting about $12.5 million in losses and after cutting costs through a partial hiring freeze and through not awarding $1.4 million in scholarships.
Much scholarship money has gone unused during the university's enrollment decline.
The deficit would be covered by reserve funds, Rogerson said. In the meantime, he said, the university will focus on improving student recruitment and retention, which could help with the university's financial struggles.
"I believe the solution is not to overtax our students. ... It's to grow enrollment," Rogerson said.
A Section on 05/23/2019